“He (Mike Ashley) was a great guy, I got on really well with him – he was one of those chairmen who came to socialise with the players.

“We had a really good time with him at Newcastle and when the wives would turn up for nights out, he would often sit down and have a drink and a joke – you don’t get that from many chairmen.”

I don’t want to write off Peter Lovenkrands as a player but he was lucky to get a club like Newcastle United, not the other way around.

He became a bit of a ‘cult hero’ but was in reality a Championship standard player who was very very fortunate to be employed by United for three and a half years, no wonder he speaks so highly of Mike Ashley!

Peter Lovenkrands scored 13 goals to help Newcastle out of the Championship but only scored another 9 in 46 Premier League appearances for United, backing up my belief of where his level of ability lay.

Ironically, Lovenkrands sums up Ashley’s running of Newcastle.

Back in the middle of what would prove to be the relegation season Newcastle were desperately struggling for goals and in that January transfer window instead of bringing in a quality striker to help us out of trouble, Ashley brought in Peter Lovenkrands for nothing. The Danish striker scoring only three goals as United sank into the Championship.

Watch out for tomorrow’s follow up – ‘Joe Kinnear is a really canny bloke you know’, JFK being the one in charge of team affairs when Lovenkrands signed.

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I was once given a free copy of the Sun but it doesn’t mean I like Rupert Murdoch…. some people are bought far too easily!

JakBauer

id buy the whole of Newcastle a drink if id pocketed £74 mill in sky money

Demented_Man

I had that Osama bin Laden bloke in the back of the cab once. He seemed a regular sort of guy – just like you and me.

DavidDrape

Yeah from what i have heard I have no doubt socially he is a very nice person. MA himself likes to socialise and uses football (not even sure if he is a real football fan) for making friends, however, all the big chiefs at most top (customer orientated) organisations will tell you that you have to have your Indians on board to be really successful…so perhaps he isn’t as good as he thinks he is or if he did have the fans on his side then he wold be even richer

Jim Joe Billy Bob

Three and a half years at St James’ that is 185 weeks, and remind me how much the Danish superstar was paid per week?…

Nicolaus Copernicus

So anyone who has ever shaken the hand of Mike Ashley, or spoken well of him, is by definition tainted and therefore a candidate for yet another negative Mag article. A pointless piece.